Thoughts on Life, Love, Politics, Hypocrisy and Coming Out in Mid-Life

Friday, May 01, 2015

Intellectual Integrity - A Missing GOP Trait

I continually bemoan the state of today's Republican Party where ignorance is embraced and celebrated and where ideological purity trumps objective reality be it in economic matters or the on going denial that climate change is a real phenomenon. The problem is exacerbated by the growing extremism and ignorance of the party base - in good measure due to the rising of the Christofascists who are mutually exclusive of logic, reason, and intellectual curiosity - and the party primary process which forces the best candidates from campaign contests since the base only votes for know nothings and extremists be they religious extremists or white supremacists who merely don't wear KKK robes in public. A column in the New York Times looks at the shrinking intellectual integrity in the GOP. Here are excerpts:

The
2016 campaign should be almost entirely about issues. The parties are
far apart on everything from the environment to fiscal policy to health
care, and history tells us that what politicians say during a campaign is a good guide to how they will govern.

Nonetheless,
many in the news media will try to make the campaign about
personalities and character instead. And character isn’t totally
irrelevant. . . . . But the character trait that will matter most isn’t one the press likes to focus on. In fact, it’s actively discouraged.

You see, you shouldn’t care whether a candidate is someone you’d like to
have a beer with. Nor should you care about politicians’ sex lives, or
even their spending habits unless they involve clear corruption. No,
what you should really look for, in a world that keeps throwing nasty
surprises at us, is intellectual integrity: the willingness to face
facts even if they’re at odds with one’s preconceptions, the willingness
to admit mistakes and change course.

As Franklin Roosevelt put it in a celebrated speech,
“The country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common
sense to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try
another. But above all, try something.”

What we see instead in many public figures is, however, the behavior George Orwell described in one of his essays:
“Believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are
finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that
we were right.” Did I predict runaway inflation that never arrived?
Well, the government is cooking the books, and besides, I never said
what I said.

So
what’s the state of intellectual integrity at this point in the
election cycle? Pretty bad, at least on the Republican side of the
field.

Jeb Bush, for example, has declared that “I’m my own man” on foreign policy, but the list of advisers circulated by his aides included the likes of Paul Wolfowitz, who predicted that Iraqis would welcome us as liberators, and shows no signs of having learned from the blood bath that actually took place.

Meanwhile, as far as I can tell no important Republican figure has admitted
that none of the terrible consequences that were supposed to follow
health reform — mass cancellation of existing policies, soaring
premiums, job destruction — has actually happened.

The point is that
we’re not just talking about being wrong on specific policy questions.
We’re talking about never admitting error, and never revising one’s
views. Never being able to say that you were wrong is a serious
character flaw even if the consequences of that refusal to admit error
fall only on a few people. But moral cowardice should be outright
disqualifying in anyone seeking high office.

We
really, really don’t want the job of responding to that crisis dictated
by someone who still can’t bring himself to admit that invading Iraq
was a disaster but health reform wasn’t.

I
still think this election should turn almost entirely on the issues.
But if we must talk about character, let’s talk about what matters,
namely intellectual integrity.

Translate This Page

Contact Me to Order Title Work

LGBT Legal Services

About Me

Out gay attorney in a committed relationship; formerly married and father of three wonderful children; sometime activist and political/news junkie; survived coming out in mid-life and hope to share my experiences and reflections with others.
In the career/professional realm, I am affiliated with Caplan & Associates PC where I practice in the areas of real estate, estate planning (Wills, Trusts, Advanced Medical Directives, Financial Powers of Attorney, Durable Medical Powers of Attorney); business law and commercial transactions; formation of corporations and limited liability companies and legal services to the gay, lesbian and transgender community, including birth certificate amendment.

Disclaimer on Opinions and Content

This Blog contains content that may be innapropriate for readers under the legal age of 18. IF YOU ARE UNDER 18 YEARS OF AGE, PLEASE LEAVE NOW. Thank you

This is an opinion and commentary blog and the opinions and contents of this Blog - including opinions expressed concerning opponents of LGBT equality - are the opinions only of the individual blogger and should not be attributed to any other individuals or to any organization of which the blogger is a past or current member.

Followers

Michael-in-Norfolk disclaims any and all responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, completeness, legality, reliability, operability, or availability of information or material displayed on this site and does not claim credit for any images or articles featured on this site, unless otherwise noted. All visual content is copyrighted to it's respectful owners. Information on this site may contain errors or inaccuracies, and Michael-in-Norfolk does not make warranty as to the correctness or reliability of the site's content. If you own rights to any of the images or articles, and do not wish them to appear on this site, please contact Michael-in-Norfolk via e-mail and they will be promptly removed. Michael-in-Norfolk contains links to other Internet sites. These links are provided solely as a convenience and are not endorsements of any products or services in such sites, and no information or content in such site has been endorsed or approved by this blog.